


Birds of a feather

by NerdyNobody



Category: N.E.R.D.S. - Michael Buckley
Genre: Gimme some slack, I made this on impulse ok, Will add tags as I go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:01:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26320819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdyNobody/pseuds/NerdyNobody
Summary: What if positions were swapped? What if Heathcliff wasn't the bad guy anymore, but everyone else was?
Kudos: 4





	1. Fly Away

Heathcliff remembered the day he had sat with Ruby on the bench after school, watching the snow fall while they waited for their parents to pick them up. Her words had seemed so calm and casual back then. Contemplative.

"Heathcliff. What would you do if you knew you could rid the world of it's problems, but had to do bad things to do it?" She had asked. He had been bewildered by the sudden question, heterochromatic eyes blinking at her owlishly, and only managing a soft "......Huh?" in response. The corners of the girl's mouth had twitched upwards in amusement for just a fleeting moment before disappearing again, brown eyes never breaking contact with his own. 

"You heard me." She said simply, and that he had.

His eyes drew down to look into his lap where his hands fiddled mindlessly with the end of his scarf, mulling the question over in that all too serious way that he always did for questions that were usually meant to be jokes or the like. But it was rare for Ruby to crack a joke. He knew that. So after a second, he answered.

"Well, that depends. 'bad things' is a really vague scale to put things on, Ruby. That could mean anything from committing mass bank robbery to destroying nations. I would do a lot to help the world, but I don't want to hurt people doing it. Too many people, anyway. Sometimes you have to crack a few eggs." He said, biting at his cheek. Ruby spared him a affirmative hum, eyes still never leaving him.

"Would you take over the world? If you could stop the pain and suffering, would you take it by force?" She asked.

"Weird questions here, Ruby." He let out an awkward, nervous laugh. "Hm.......maybe? That would be pretty risky. Maybe I would though but......what would that entail? Who's lives would I have to destroy to do it? How am I supposed to put that theoretical plan into action? And....what would I have to leave behind?" He responded, rubbing at his neck. Her gaze felt like it was burning into his skull, though it was neutral as always.

Any further words had been cut off by the arrival of their parents. Her parting words had been "Think about it." before they parted to go home. And he did, oh how he did. And it wasn't the last time she would approach him about it either, and soon even the others were a part of the pushing. But every time, he had managed to back himself out no matter how she cornered him, his answers becoming less and less straight forward. He had run, every time with a deep, deep, and ever growing pit in his stomach. Passing off that feeling had been the stupidest mistake he had ever made in his life. All because she was his best friend, he didn't want to believe she would do that. Birds of a feather, right? They had always been since they were kids.

But this bird had flown far from the tree, and now he saw truly what all that running and denying had gotten him to. 

Ice shifted under his feet as he grasped for something, anything to keep him steady, as his gaze turned up, where he had ordered goons to destroy the panel, his head aching from the exertion of keeping so many in hold, where his friends, or former friends, were standing next to, pulling themselves back, away from the chaos. Away from him. " _Please,_ stop this! It's over! We can go _home_! Forget this happened!

'' He shouted, knowing full well they couldn't just forget this, and knowing full well that familiar, set look on Ruby's face.

The girl always had a way with her words. He wasn't surprised that the others went with her, though why she took Jackson as well was beyond him. Extra muscle, probably. No matter, looking at them made betrayal ache in his chest. The ice was rocking and shaking, but it wasn't the reason he felt sick to his stomach. No, he attributed that to Ruby's face. It gave away nothing. Before, they had been so close that he could tell every emotion by just a little twitch in her face. A furrow of her brows, a miniscule upturn of her lips. But that was gone now, and all those barky brown eyes held now was a cold more icy than the arctic around them. It gave him nothing. She had shut him out. It felt like his heart was ripping out, more than it had when she had revealed the fact that she was Simon.

"You're a coward, Heathcliff. We could have fixed things together. All of us. You were the last one I expected to run from this." She said, her tone even, yet so very piercing. She shook her head. "Disappointing." 

The sound of helicopter blades cut through the air, a black, unmarked chopper flying overhead and coming down low next to the ice cliff, the group backing away towards it.

"Please.....don't...." Heathcliff begged, hearing his voice crack despite how soft it was. Ruby didn't spare him an answer, only turning away and walking ahead with the others, where Jackson and Julio helped everyone aboard, very careful not to fall off into the icy waters below. They were smarter than that. And all Heathcliff could do was watch, frozen in place by his own feelings as he watched the chopper start to make it's exit. His friends stood by the open door and looked down to the world below, Heathcliff thought he may have seen a brief moment of remorse in Ruby's eyes before it died like the final flicker on a flame. And as Heathcliff watched them go, He would have to admit that he cried for the first time in a very, very long time.


	2. Trying

Ruby had tried with Heathcliff. She well and truly had tried, very very hard. She had pushed, she had prodded, she had tried to plant those little seeds in his head so that when the day came he would follow her happily to the other side without ever looking back. But then, Heathcliff had never been a green thumb. Those seeds never took root, and her prodding had only torn a rift between them that was now clear to see as she watched the icy tundra disappear from view as their helicopter flew from the chaos they had left behind. Never in all her days would she have thought _Heathcliff_ would be the one who got away. The two had always been birds of a feather. They butted heads over leadership, sure, they were both stubborn as mules, and that was bound to cause tension, but it had always been water under the bridge eventually, and they would walk each other home with a smile on their faces. She always thought he would have been her right hand. But he had been scared. Disappointing.   
  
The girl sighed and finally pulled the door shut, thinking it too cold to stand there reminiscing with it open. It was the damn arctic, after all. So instead she turned her head to scan over the others, who were talking among themselves of the mission they had just failed and of how they had left Heathcliff. Duncan and Julio looked to be more tense and regretful, they had always been the softer ones, while Matilda and Jackson just looked pissed off that they didn't win that one. Her frown deepened slightly as her gaze went over Jackson, she briefly wondered if she really had to bring him along for the ride. But then again, one could always use extra muscle or a body shield, and that's all he really was to her.  
  
Now that she was thinking about it, Jackson had probably been the easiest to convince to join her. She wasn't surprised, the boy was exceedingly stupid, but still. All she needed to do was use a bit of silver tongued talking, a half truth here and a little bit of bolstering there, playing a bit into his ego and grand aspirations, and she had him hook line and sinker. She hadn't really wanted him on the team, but she also wanted him out of the way. Because sometimes even a super genius couldn't beat the sheer dumb luck of someone as dumb as a bag of rocks. Thankfully being dumb had it's perks, for Ruby that is, because it ensured that the boy would believe her, and more than likely stick with her as long as she fed him what he wanted to hear. Controlling him was, and would be, very easy.  
  
The others, however? She didn't need to control them. They were her friends, she trusted them to stay by her side. They had gone through torture and abuse together, seen the worst of humanity, they all had a similar goal. To fix things. To make the world better by force. To wipe the corruption from the board even if it meant destroying the world while they did it. Convincing them to follow had been admittedly hard, they were the types who didn't want to hurt people who didn't warrant it. They didn't want to leave behind everything for that kind of mission that would truthfully place them as the "bad guys" of the situation. She had to be persistent and keep prodding them until finally they caved, and she was able to take their hands and show them what could be done. In the end, she knew they would give eventually. But then again she had thought that of Heathcliff too. And right about now he would be flying his way back home after having just destroyed their first plan. Maybe she shouldn't have put so much trust in him.  
  
"Hey Ruby?"   
  
Ruby turned her head slightly, eyes landing on Duncan, who the voice had come from. He looked tense and nervous, his hands fiddling with the ends of his jacket sleeves.  
  
"Uh, what happens now? You kind of.....forgot to tell us the plan B." He said. Ruby hummed her affirmation, leaning against the cold steel door as she turned completely towards them.  
  
"Well, the base I mentioned should be set up by now, so we will be heading there. I will admit, I didn't expect Heathcliff wouldn't be joining us, much less actually halt our plan, but the show will go on. Once we arrive at base, we will settle down for a night and start working on a new plan the day after. It will take about two days to get there, we'll stop once when we get to the mainland to get food and the like, once at the halfway point to let the pilot rest, get more food, and the like, hopefully we will have minimal rest stops." She explained. The group seemed to relax a bit at the answer, knowing their near future was at least somewhat planned.  
  
"How did you even commission to _build_ a base anyway? I'm still flaky on the details of how exactly you were even able to set up this whole thing in the first place." Jackson said. Ruby sighed, thinking for a moment before deciding that with the time they had, she may as well waste some by telling them a little bit.  
  
"It's simple, Jackson, with the right tools and tricks. A bit of hacking here, a little bit of theft, the right know how and the right connections, that's all you need to start an empire. And with the right face and smooth talking, you can go very far very quickly. I simply worked my way up once I figured out my way around, though I did have some help at first. Worked especially well once I fleshed out "Simon" and his whole ruse. Villains always trust a mystery man behind a screen with a skull mask and a voice coder, not many are very smart." A slight smirk darted over her face for a brief moment. "And once I had all that planned and set, I gathered the funds and had a....villainous contractor? Start on the base. Then I got out Jigsaw, set more things up, and the rest for you all is history. Now when we get to base, I just need to contact Brand and see what's going on now." She finished, deciding to finally sit herself in a chair rather than looking like she was brooding coolly against the door. She wasn't some brooding, mysterious villain or anti hero, and she did not at all care to look like one.  
  
Matilda snorted next to her, kicking her legs up on a crate of what Ruby assumed would be.....weapons? Fuel? Something dangerous, now facilitating the girl's comfort as she leaned back. Ruby didn't particularly like the fact that there was unstrapped cargo in here, but then again, it had all been strapped in before so......Matilda did that on purpose. She had to know that was a safety hazard. But Ruby decided, upon a blunt stare at the girl, that she would tackle that problem later, or when the box started slamming into their faces. For now, they would just relax and enjoy the ride.


	3. Background Noise

Heathcliff didn't know what to feel when they arrived back at base. He just felt cold and numb despite the fact they had long left the freezing arctic winter behind. There were no tears left to cry now, so all he did was curl up onto a couch and close his eyes, wishing the world to fade while he tried to register everything. Panicked voices babbled from outside the fog of his brain, but it was all just fuzzy nonsense to him at this point. He couldn't care less about what they were speaking of. They would figure it out. Likely just wondering what they were supposed to do with five new superpowered adversaries against them and a now only one man team to fight them off. Pitiful, really. But Heathcliff didn't want a new team. He didn't _want_ anyone to replace his former friends. He could never replace the people he had spent so long beside, fighting with, laughing with, standing with. There was a tightness in his chest that didn't want to leave, he couldn't think. Didn't want to either. He curled up more, trying to focus on just letting the world fade away, the black behind his eyelids and the buzz of the background were some small comfort at least. He just wanted it to go away.   
  
Then, a hand on his shoulder.   
  
"I think we should get you home. You can ride with me. There's no use for you to be staying here, we can do any medical checkups tomorrow. Right now, you need rest." Ms. Holiday's accented voice broke through the static for a moment, making him look up. Her face was gentle as always, but he could see the hidden strain. Grief. Anger. All packed so neatly beneath eyes as blue as the arctic ice. He only nodded in response. He wanted to see his parents. He had missed them,  
  
Thank god she helped him up, or he might not have been able to himself. He felt empty and heavy, like there was a hand around his lungs that was just _squeezing_ in a way that twisted and pulled but wasn't painful, yet always there. Weighing him down. He mulled his thoughts around the feeling as Holiday led him to the exit, stumbling there like a zombie, looking like he would fall over any second. Eyes staring ahead but hardly seeing. The buzzing of words that were nonsense in his ears faded away as the exit closed, and he was almost falling out of his locker. He only needed a second before Holiday was there too, leading him by the shoulder. Down quiet, empty halls and out the door to the parking lot where her car was. Close enough to not take long before Heathcliff landed on a plump leather seat in the back, numbly buckling up. Safety was important after all.  
  
"Tell me if you don't want music, but I think a little may help. Always helps me anyway." She told him, plugging in her phone as she turned on the car, and tapping around before settling on some, a soft Russian song coming through the speakers. He tried to focus on the words for a second, understanding them vaguely. Holiday was Russian, and with the job the NERDS had, she thought it would be nice to teach them all some as a sort of bonding exercise as well. Heathcliff himself had done it quite happily, he was always willing to learn. His knowledge was.....conversational at this point, at least. Less than he would like, maybe. But he was still learning.   
  
His knowledge was enough at least to register that the song was something about lovers lost, he didn't care to look too deep into it as the music faded away too, closing his eyes once more to simply feel as the car started rolling along, everything once more fading away into white noise as Heathcliff practically hovered over the edge of sleep. He hadn't really gotten any when they had been kept in the arctic base, the beds had been raggedy and stiff with springs sticking out, not to mention the blanket was hardly more than a thin sheet of fabric. He had worried about the others when he was in that cell. But now he realized they were probably comfy cozy in some separate part of the facility as they schemed together. His chest twisted tighter at the thought.

He wanted to hate them. He didn't know if he could.

Holiday knew where he lived, so it wasn't a problem getting there, and soon he was hopping out once more. Glancing at the car clock, he was just barely in time for dinner. He had barely even taken a couple steps before the door opened to reveal the smiling face of his mother, and suddenly he was running, almost throwing himself into her and burying his head into her chest. And for a moment, everything felt clear. Her arms wrapped around him as words were exchanged between the women, sweet as sugar as Holiday said yes, Heathcliff had a fun time at the camp, but the last minutes were a bit stressful and he was tired. Heathcliff didn't care to listen, simply melting against familiar warmth as something fluffy curled around his leg and meowed loudly.  
  
"Hey champ! Just in time, Momma made fish and chips!" His fathers voice rang happily, a hand ruffling in his hair. A brief smile tugged at his lips as he pulled away, swatting the hand away in mock annoyance to fix his hair. Routine. Familiar. The door closed behind as he leaned down and picked up Oscar, burying his head into fluffy, pitch black fur before putting him down to move into the kitchen, taking a deep breath of the smell of cooking dinner. Most people loathed the smell of fish, but honestly, he quite liked it. It smelled like home.  
  
He plopped down in his seat as his mom set out the food, talking of things like how his time was and what he did. He only gave hums and bare answers, really, focusing on chowing down on his food. He hardly even registered the questions, only enough to give the barest answers that would make them happy. He would think of a better story in the morning. It made him feel a bit better, with some semblance of the routine he used to have, and plus he hadn't had much more than cold oatmeal the last three days, so this was nice. It made the squeezing in his chest just a bit more bearable. His parents were just like that. He could get so angry, so sad, get pushed to the point of breaking, but when he came back home, for a while, it would go away. But when he went away, he knew it would come back. He would go to school, or go to his room, and all those feelings would rise up and swirl around in his head once more, pushing and pushing and _pushing._ It was what had made him almost join Ruby once.  
  
He had been pulling his head out of a toilet after a particularly nasty day, and the rage kept growing, further and further and further upwards. The world was a horrible horrible place, if it was just letting people like this rule it. Why wouldn't he just take it over and change that? Destroy the problem, make sure it would never happen again, he thought, with his head steaming with all the horrible things he could do. He could kill them, torture them, make them suffer like they did to him. The thought had made him more gleeful than he wanted to admit. He had dried off his head and strode out, fully ready to tell Ruby he changed his mind and that they should rule the world together as he entered the cafeteria. But when their eyes met across the room, he has to stop and think.  
  
What would she have thought? What would his parents think? What would happen if he did? How many innocents would he have hurt, when his _job_ was to protect the vulnerable? For a long time, he had thought. Everything else had dissolved. The rage was still there, even now it brewed away inside him, but for that moment, it had gone just enough to not take him over. Not yet. Those thoughts stayed, and he had kept thinking about it for a very long time. He came close to getting into it more than once. But the longer he looked, the less it seemed like a good idea and the more it seemed like he was letting rage control his actions. And now it was all but gone. Still stirring like a caged beast in the back of his mind but.....faded. He didn't know how this new development would effect that beast, but hopefully he was strong enough to stave off any urges.  
  
He only realized he had been picking absently at scraps when his fork screeched across the ceramic, and he glanced down before getting up and putting his plate in the sink. He gave some mindless excuse for himself to leave the table and go to bed, not bothering to even pull his clothes off when he got upstairs, simply flopping face first into the bed, barely avoiding the black puff curled on the end of it. Sleep consumed him in seconds, hoping that tomorrow wouldn't give him too much hell. A fruitless hope, ultimately. There was much too much to do.


	4. Home

The ride to the group's new base was filled with chatter. It was the one thing that was able to keep their minds off of what had just happened, and keep them all entertained through their ride there, though of course bothering the pilot became a quick second favorite to talking with one another. Ruby noted how Jackson seemed to have become quite interested in how the thing worked, if the goon flew anything else, and how those worked too. Matilda seemed very happy to teach him a bit more about it, Duncan joined in quickly after, and it wasn't long until all of them were joined in spouting off about all sorts of flying machines. Ruby though, she just tried to tune them out and keep marking down plans on the notepad she found. Mostly about second locations, action plans, and general villainy things. Ugh, she was probably going to need to hire another go between to act as the face for all their dealings with other villains, and those guys always cost a lot of money. Sometimes even more than minions! She scoffed at the thought. The others didn't care much for these more complicated dealings, so she dealt alone.

Heathcliff would have helped.

But she tossed that thought swiftly aside, once again focusing on the task at hand, before, at least, before her allergies went off and she had to tilt her head to the side to keep from being hit in the face by a protein bar, which hit the wall and fell into her lap, which she gave a withering look before glaring at Julio, who had tossed it. She hadn't eaten in a minute, after all. 

The rest of the trip had continued as such, annoyingly, with no lack of complaints about boredom. However, by some miracle, they landed finally before Ruby started knocking heads together. They all rushed to the windows to look outside as their copter descended onto the landing pad. And when they did, their first reaction was plainly.....disappointment. They had all expected something grand, no doubt. Something beautiful, dramatic, amazing, evil! Something....stereotypical. But Ruby never played into stereotypes much. Instead, below, was a bunker. Not very big, just enough for a room maybe the size of a bedroom. Cold grey concrete with a high, barbed wire fence around the clearing it sat in. Simple. Hidden. 

"Hey! I thought this place was gonna be cool!" Jackson protested, Ruby shooting him a dirty look. 

"Jackson, almost every villain base that looks "cool" ends up being found quite easily. If a villain has any sense, they want to stay hidden, and this is a good way to stay hidden. A hidden bunker deep in a forest, nobody will find us unless they get very, very smart. We can't risk blowing our operation as soon as we start. So get used to it. We can decorate the inside however we want." She said, shoving her notebook back into a bag and waiting until the landing was complete before getting up and throwing the door open, hopping out and stretching her legs as she watched the others do the same, scanning their surroundings. Green as far as the eye could see.

"Geez, how isolated did you make us? What if something happens and we have to run?" Matilda asked, a bit disturbed by the silence. 

"There's a town that we could get to in about a day's walk if we needed to, we wouldn't die." Ruby said, waving the girl off and striding to the door. There was a panel next to it that she placed her hand on, waiting for a second before the door clicked and she was allowed to swing it open, gesturing for the others to follow. They did, but obviously weren't particularly thrilled with the way it was through an empty room and down into a dark stairway. Julio muttered something about evil clowns and it being a gateway into a horror movie. Matilda muttered back agreement and set of a round of nervous giggles among them. They quieted when at the bottom they reached another, much more sturdy metal door, with another panel that this time, Ruby had to scan her hand, punch in a code, scan her eye, and whisper a password into before it slid upwards to reveal a long hall, which was surprisingly occupied, large men in construction outfits moving in and out of rooms with various things, mostly tables and the like, though farther down there were some with actual construction tools, bricks and the like. Nobody took notice of them, save for the one person watching over them, sticking out from the rest. They were short, had dirty blonde hair in a ponytail covered by a hard hat, wore a similar construction outfit, and looked shockingly non villain like, with a extremely young, soft face and kind green eyes. Couldn't be more than 25. They turned, and the group almost jumped into defense as they shouted over in a light Brooklyn accent. 

"Oy, hello there! You must be the boss, ay? Nice to meet ya in person! Sorry, you arrived a bit early! We're finishing everything up, but you were a little sudden in your announcement that you had to occupy so soon. The dormitory, your rooms, and the evil office are all finished up though, so feel free to follow the signs and start calling your goons and whatnot to start coming in soon. We'll be out of your hair soon!" They announced, before turning back to see someone almost drop a shelf, and turning attention completely to supervise once more. 

"......Should I ask?" Duncan asked slowly. Ruby huffed and led them forward, weaving through the construction workers.

"Villain specific base commission work. They're very reputable, are shockingly cheap for their work, and do half off deals for villains under 18, and do free light furnishing for your first commission. We need to cut corners where we can, we're only starting out. I've been stealing a lot of money from some rich guys around the world, and other places, but right now we still need to budget as we get things going. So try not to complain. They look young, but younger villains are usually much more reliable." She said, scanning the signs that lead them to their own living space. 

"So that was YOU who stole millions off that one Donald guy?" Jackson asked, letting out a loud snort. Ruby scoffed.

"Business tycoon Donald Trump. Or, well, past business tycoon now. He was an idiot just waiting to be robbed." She said, rolling her eyes to boisterous laughter behind her.

"So, are we going to be working with a lot of villains?" Julio asked curiously, turning in a circle to scan the area. He noted particularly that the floors were tiled colorfully, in a way that reminded him of the specks on a jawbreaker, or confetti, or.........The Playground. His usual present grin faded, lips turning downward at the thought. He......missed it already. Suddenly there was a soft hand gripping his, and he looked down to see the face of his best friend, smiling gently up at him. He always did think Duncan had the best smiles, like the sun, and a lot better than Jackson's cocky dumb lopsided ones. It never failed to make him feel better, and now was no different.

"Possibly. It's always good to have connections within the larger community, though you can't really have "allies" since it's more than rare to find one who won't turn heel and stab you in the back the second you aren't useful to them. Thankfully, my upgrades should be able to weed those ones out well enough. But, in any case, just get ready if we do." Ruby said.

"We'll leave that up to you, boss girl. You're the knowledgeable one about all this." Matilda shrugged, glancing ahead where they soon stopped, noting the sign pointing to what would be their own private quarters.

Stepping along, they finally came to a wood door, pushing it open to find a round common room, or living room of sorts, that was set with wood floors instead. There were smooth white walls and black leather couches and seats, a long coffee table in front of the couches, a tv hanging from the ceiling over it, and on the other side a small kitchen and dining area with the basics. Sink, stove, fridge, dishwasher, some counter space, microwave, shelves and cabinets, it was just enough space to house them all quite comfortably. With time, maybe it would feel......like home. Because now, that was what it had to be.

As they gazed upon the area, they all thought the same thing. The uncomfortable silence settled over the children like a blanket, until Julio finally broke it, much to everyone's relief.

"I call room number 1! I'm gonna paint it with paintballs!" He said, grinning as he disappeared in a flash of wind, down the small hall at the other side of the room, one of the front doors popping open and slamming shut in a moment, causing the others to rush off to stake their claim on their own rooms, while shouting things like "You better let US help!" and "Try not to hog all the paint when we do!". Well, Ruby didn't. She walked calmly and slowly to one of the doors at the end of the hall, nearest to the large oak doors leading to what would be their office. Every good villain had an evil office. For evil paperwork and evil bill payments, and bitcoin scams. But Ruby decided to leave it for tomorrow. At the moment, she was tired. Like a new weight had settled itself firmly in her chest and shoulders. The kind of weight she knew all too well wouldn't leave until she died. The kind of weight old heroes had as they turned their backs from the light and started to carve their way on a new path. 

But that was just fine with her. 

And so she opened the door to her new room, only turning briefly to observe the hall again, still alive with her team shouting at each other from inside their rooms, she admired that they had to be extremely loud to get through, the walls were well insulated. 

......There was a sixth door. Across from her, sitting empty and quiet. ......Ah yes. She had ordered five rooms when she started this plan on the base, but she added a sixth when Jackson tumbled down into their lair. She had to, couldn't let anything loose ended. But they still happened that way as she finally conceded to the fact that Heathcliff would not be joining them. She turned away, stepping into her room. 

Oh well. It would serve as good junk storage.


	5. Plan B

Heathcliff could very much say that getting out of bed today was much harder than usual. It wasn't even the aching muscles and bruises, it was simply the prospect of _how_ it was going to go after everything that just happened. The mere thought of it weighed down on his body heavily, he considered going back to bed and not getting up again. But his mother shouting at him from downstairs about breakfast at least somewhat prompted him to heave his mortal flesh from the comforting confines of his sheets, body slumped as he wobbled tiredly downstairs.  
  
He hardly acknowledged his father playfully ruffling his hair and mother giving him a kiss on the cheek as he flopped down for a breakfast of pancakes and bacon, barely more aware than he was the night before albeit more hungry, gorging himself absently before going back upstairs with a small mumble of goodbye to get himself some clothes so he could get a more proper shower, in which he once again felt like going to sleep, but yet again persisted. He briefly wondered if he would get an award for this afterwards.  
  
Whatever the case, he slogged through the rest of his routine, not bothering blow drying his hair before he was out the door and on the way to school, which was yet another long, depressing slog. Usually he would be stopping by the houses of the others as he went, picking them each up to walk to school together, but today he couldn't even stand the thought of going by their houses. Despite how he acted, he did like walking to school with them. Stopping by as they came out the doorstep with jovial or tired greetings, still sipping juice boxes to perk them up and usually talking about the recent mission, laughing about the aches and pains, complaining about having to get up so early after their daily dose of saving the world, it was pleasant, and he enjoyed listening to whatever chatter they were on about.   
  
The silence was suffocating.  
  
He really wasn't in the mood for bullying today, so when the usual gang came up to mock him, he flashed a lopsided sneer and simply said  
  
" _ **Leave.**_ "   
  
And of course, they did. And before he knew it, he was at his desk in class, not even half listening to what the teacher was rambling on about. Something he already knew, probably.  
  
As he suspected, it was barely a few minutes before he sneezed, and Ms. Holiday's gentle voice sounded in his head.   
  
"Time to come down, Heathcliff. We're going to try to figure things out." She said. Heathcliff simply sighed and pushed himself up, plodded to the front of the room, flashed a lopsided smile, gave some muttered order, and slid right out the door.  
  
In another blink, he was floating downwards into the Playground, and he barely had time to react before someone had his hand and was pulling him to the central table, that person being Holiday, who was trying to give him a comforting smile as she sat him down. The fact Brand was pacing in front of said table enough to wear a hole in the floor kind of offset that, though. He still appreciated the attempt.   
  
It took a minute, but Brand eventually stopped his pacing and slammed his hands on the table with a deep breath, Benjamin popping out but staying mercifully silent as he seemed to choose hovering behind Heathcliff to possibly poking the bear, so to speak. Brand turned his head to the ceiling, dragging his hand down his face with another deep sigh before looking down onto Heathcliff. Their eyes met, and Heathcliff got the distinct feeling that Brand was both glad he was on their side, and unhappy he was on their side, if the hardening look said anything,  
  
" **So.** "

" _So._ "

Brand sighed again, starting back up with his pacing. " ** _So_** we are missing _five_ agents out of six, all of whom have decided taking up villainy is a productive activity for a bunch of kids to take up. All of whom still have their _powers_. All of whom currently seem to have no _trackers. AND_ all of whom are extremely smart and well trained." He said.  
  
"Jackson isn't either of those. He's a dunce with hardly any training at all and hubris enough to charge into danger without a second thought. The only reason I suspect Ruby brought him in is because he makes for a good meat shield and distraction." Heathcliff said bluntly. Holiday obviously wanted to scold him for that, but in the face of this situation, he watched her scrunch her face as she bit her tongue.   
  
"Whatever. We're still currently facing off against a couple of superpowered agents that could cause a lot of trouble if we don't do something _now_. So, we need new people. Heathcliff, do you know _anyone_ in this school that could be suitable to be an agent?" Brand said. Heathcliff shook his head.  
  
"Not really. There are plenty of people with exploitable quirks, but in my opinion, everyone here are a bunch of nut-brained knuckleheads that couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag, and idiots with no moral code whatsoever. Training any of them, training the amount that we need for a team, will be grueling, and will take too much time to get them to be even a quarter as good as the others were, and in that time, they could already be taking over the world." Heathcliff said with a very matter of fact tone.  
  
"Great! Amazing! So what do you _suggest_ we do?" Brand asked in exasperation, throwing his hands up.  
  
"I want to go solo."  
  
Silence.

....

.............

......................

"Heathcliff, I don't think that's a very good idea." Benjamin finally piped up.

"Not at all." Holiday agreed.

"Kid, it's great that you're eager to save the world, but you.....alright, I'll be blunt, you're not really the stuff of heroes without other people to pad it out." Brand said, gesturing to Heathcliff's body, much to the boy's annoyance, and Holiday's anger. "I mean, for god's sake, your power is _hypnotism_! Sure you can fight, but your _main_ ability is making _other_ people fight _for_ you! You have brains, but hardly any brawn, and sorry to burst your bubble, but sometimes brawn is exactly what you need when you're backed into a corner! You look like a twig, you have visual impairments, you have an issue with authority, anger issues, have absolutely _no_ people skills to speak of, maybe you _can_ do some things alone, but eventually? Your luck will run out, and we'll be erasing your parent's memories so they don't wonder where their little boy went off to."  
  
Heathcliff bristled, gritting his teeth and glaring back at Brand as he tried to keep his cool. " _I_ can train more to make up for it. You may not have much trust or belief in me, but you're going to _have_ to if this is going to work. We don't have enough time to wait for a whole other team to be trained. Threats to the world aren't going to stop just because we're short five agents. We can train a team, sure, but they won't be ready by the time the next threat comes along, and I can't try to herd them all to use what little skills they have as we charge into danger. It's our only good option here unless you want to bring some more adult spies into the fray to try to use. I fly solo, you find another team and train them until they're good enough to go out and be of use. I can pretend to pick up some after school activity and start up extra training. I can _handle_ being pushed. Just because I'm a kid doesn't mean I'm dumb or weak. I can take whatever you need to throw at me to think I'm good enough to go it alone." He said.  
  
Heathcliff could feel the air between all of them as Brand, Holiday, and Benjamin all looked at each other.   
  
"The difficulty in the training arena is adjustable...some levels are only meant for older or more experienced agents, but Heathcliff is a good agent, sir. With any luck he'll power through some more intense training before the next villain rears their ugly head. And in the meantime, we can look for possible candidates for new agents, maybe even outsource....? He is right, evil does not wait for team training montages in this world." Benjamin finally said.

"I don't like it, we'll still have to look for other ways....but for now it is all we have." Holiday finally agreed, with a face like she was in genuine pain.  
  
Heathcliff looked up at Brand, and for a moment the look he had made Heathcliff's body tense and his stomach twist like he was going to jump into a fight. He didn't know why, of course it didn't happen. Brand just let out a loud huff, turning around.  
  
"Fine then. But you had better be able to handle it, or you're off until we have a team. Still, we need a game plan for the others too." He relented. Relaxing slightly, Heathcliff cleared his throat.  
  
"Well, despite the situation, I've fought beside these people for a very long time. I know their strengths and weaknesses. I'll have a list on your desk by tomorrow, but....it's also due to this I think maybe we should try non violence first. I know them. Or, thought I did. They have hearts. We were friends. Duncan particularly I knew very well. If I can speak to them. Maybe I can bring them back before we have to do something severe. Before you....wipe the memory of them. I know it's far fetched, and I don't expect to get far with someone like Ruby, but I can try. Exhaust the options." He said. Once again there was a pause.  
  
"Yes...I almost forgot about the memory issue. That's a very good idea, Heathcliff. Maybe we can appeal to them. We can tell Duncan's parents, but the others..."  
  
"Kidnapped." Heathcliff suggested, glancing at Brand. Another sigh, but a nod.

"I don't expect much, but I guess it's best to try. Permission granted, but only so far. Now Heathcliff, I think it's time for you to go back to class. We'll call your parents about those "extra activities", and if they don't agree to the times, you can hypnotize them. Enjoy today, it might be the last chance you have that you will be able to," The man said before stepping off. Heathcliff released a breath, and looked up at Holiday as she placed a gentle hand on his arm.  
  
"I believe in you. Try to get all the energy you can, I'll have snacks for you when you get out. Good luck, Heathcliff." She said softly.  
  
"Thank you, Ms. Holiday. I appreciate it." He replied, pushing himself out of his chair and walking to the exit, thinking in his head how lucky he was to at least have the brains to figure out a solution.  
  
A possible one, anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> A short little starter for what I hope will be a much longer story! Hope you enjoy!


End file.
